A secret source for beautiful hand-made accessories

I first spotted the work of Craftboat in a cafe near my flat in
Jaipur. There was a small shop selling smart brass teapots
for your chai and other well chosen accessories for your tea
rituals, but what caught my eye were a row of beautifully marbled
paper tea boxes shaped like ceramic vessels. I hadn't seen
anything like them and so made it my mission to track down their
creator, Jaipur based Priti Pugalia. Although she trained in
fashion, Priti started her company Craftboat after falling in love
with the traditional hand-made rag paper produced just outside
Jaipur in a small village called Sanganer. This paper is created
using cotton fabric waste, left over from the garment industry. It
is 100% recycled, completely natural and generates zero waste. The
process of transforming it from shreds of cloth to colourful paper
sheets is very simple and great fun to watch. I made a trip
with Priti to her paper-making workshop where I saw the strips of
cotton being chopped, pulped with water and colour before being
sieved through mesh frames to be reincarnated as a brand new sheet
of paper. It's a wonderfully messy and very colourful production
line.

Before the paper is transformed into the finished products that
I spied in the tea shop, each sheet is either hand block-printed
using carved wooden blocks, or marbled. We visited Priti's marbler
- a man so devoted to his art he has even unleashed it on the
inside of his car! It is a peaceful art to observe. Coloured
oil paints are delicately dripped and swirled in a large tray
before a sheet of paper is ever-so-gently laid over the top of the
liquid, lightly pressed and then slowly peeled away to reveal its
unique print.

What is amazing about the whole process from start to finish, is
how little energy is used. Power is needed to churn and pulp
the fabric, but apart from that, the block printing, marbling and
construction can all be done without using any electricity at
all.

The final stage, when the sheets are transformed into smart
packaging, books and boxes of all shapes and sizes, happens in
Craftboat's smart new studio space. Priti works hard at devising
clever ways to re-think the humble box; some stack inside each
other like Russian dolls and others open to reveal little card
drawers or a fan of concertina files. I still love the first
ones I saw, inspired by the famous blue pottery vessels of
Jaipur.